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Liberating the Family: Education, Aspiration and Resistance Among South African University Students

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Liberating the Family: Education, Aspiration and Resistance Among South African University Students LIBERATING THE FAMILY: EDUCATION, ASPIRATION AND RESISTANCE AMONG SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS by Christopher Webb A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geography and Planning University of Toronto © Copyright by Christopher Webb, 2019 ii Liberating the Family: Education, Aspiration and Resistance Among South African University Students Christopher Webb Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geography and Planning University of Toronto 2019 Abstract In October 2015, South Africa witnessed the largest student protests since the end of apartheid over rising tuition costs. Based on qualitative research conducted between 2015-2016, this dissertation analyses these protests through the experiences of working-class students from Khayelitsha, an urban township in Cape Town. Education-based resistance since the end of apartheid occurs in a context of rapid and shifting patterns of class formation, in which higher education is both critical to ensuring social mobility and avoiding chronic unemployment. At the same time, higher education access is constrained by the endurance of racial and spatial inequalities, and limited forms of state support for working class students. My research reveals how working-class students develop aspirations toward higher education and how these are intimately connected to circumstances of household poverty. For these students, support for the protests did not merely involve opposition to commodification, but was connected to shared experiences of racialized poverty, aspirations toward collective social mobility, and the debilitating role of student debt. By focusing on how higher education reconfigured young people’s bonds with family and generated anticipated financial obligations, I highlight how the protests spoke to a crisis of social reproduction affecting working-class households. In doing so, I highlight young people’s role as economic actors in distributive household economies. This iii dissertation also reveals how higher education is frequently a contradictory resource for working class youth. It provides pathways toward social mobility for a limited number, while simultaneously binding them into systems that reproduce wider forms of social inequality. Rather than simply struggles against neoliberalism then, the protests reveal the multiple and contradictory functions of higher education in South Africa, as it is aimed at addressing racialized inequalities while meeting the human capital requirements of a globalized economy. Finally, I highlight the importance of relational approaches to youth studies, that understand young people’s agency as embedded within wider social, political and economic structures. iv Acknowledgements If you stand on the slopes of Table Mountain and look east toward the edge of the city, you can glimpse South Africa’s history in urban fragments. The lush green suburbs give way to railway tracks and industrial zones, and if you follow the N2 highway you can see the sun reflecting off the zinc shacks that dot the Cape Flats. As a South African and a geographer, I have tried to make sense of this landscape and how the violence, displacement and inequality that are etched into it affect people’s lives. Moving between these spaces over the last five years has been both a rewarding and challenging experience. It would not have been possible without the assistance, care, friendship and mentorship of a number of people. First, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my family in South Africa and Canada. Thank you to my siblings, Steven and Amy Webb, and my family in Cape Town, Lita Webley and Norman Schneider. They graciously welcomed me into their home on many occasions. In Cape Town, I have been lucky enough to form enduring friendships with a number of remarkable people, including my dear comrades Niall Reddy, Bruce Baigrie and Benjamin Fogel. I must also extend thanks to Tessa Muldvarp and Rasmus Bitsch for the many climbing getaways from fieldwork. Lwazi Kolanisi has also been a dear friend, comrade, interlocutor on many political issues, and my earliest guide to Khayelitsha. Throughout my time in South Africa I have benefitted immensely from the intellectual and political environment offered by Community House, a true testament to the legacy of community organizing and radical worker education in the city. At the International Labour Research and Information Group I must thank Leonard Gentle, Nandi Vanqa-Mgijima, Judy Kennedy, Anele Selekwa, Adrian Murray and the late Michael Blake. At the University of Cape Town, I benefitted greatly from the assistance of Dr. Rob Morrell, Dr. Owen Crankshaw, Dr. Murray Leibbrandt, Dr. Merlin Ince and Dr. Camalita Naicker. At the University of the Western Cape, I must thank Dr. Heike Becker, Dr. Shirley Brooks and Mnqobi Ngubane. I owe a special debt of thanks to Ferial Parker at the 100UP program for allowing me to conduct this research. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to those students at UCT, UWC and CPUT who took the time out of their busy schedules to talk to me and welcome me into their homes in Khayelitsha. Moving between South Africa and Canada has generated lasting trans-Atlantic friendships. I would like to thank, in no particular order: Sune Sandbeck, Donya Ziaee, Vinh Nguyen, Gökbörü Sarp Tanyıldız, Melissa Levin, Nicole Leach, Parastou Saberi, Tyler Shipley, Alex Levant, Lama Mourad, Toby Moorsom, Wangui Kimari, Alec Brookes, Elise Thorburn, Alex Caramento, James Patterson, Simon Vickers, Justin Kong, Sara Atnikov, Michael Braun, Samara Carroll, Shauna Calnitsky, Zac Smith, Nausheen Quayyum, Sean Jacobs, Kim Veller, Mai Taha, Michelle Bobala, Ezra Reimer, Rebecca Peech, Kate Cronin, Bryan Dale, Lazar Konforti, Laura Tozer, Martin Danyluk, Robert Kopack, Becky McMillan, Leah Montange, Laura Vaz Jones, Beyhan Farhadi, Adam Zendel, Cynthia Morinville, Nicole Van Lier, Ellie Ade Kur, Killian McCormack, Angela Day, Lia Frederiksen, Sabrien Amrov, Ben Butler, Isabel Urrutia, Caitlin Henry, Sam Walker, Ewa Modlinska, Lea Ravensbergen-Hodgins, Tasha Shea, Chizoba Imoka, Sharada Srinivasan, Carmen Teeple-Hopkins, Cory Jansson, Viviana Patroni, Pablo Idahosa and Adam Cooper. Also, a big shout-out to the staff at the Field Office in Cape Town and Contra Café in Toronto for keeping me well-caffeinated through writing and fieldwork. v I owe a great debt of gratitude to my committee members for providing me with support and feedback throughout, and for their understanding as my research took unanticipated detours. Dr. Jennifer Jihye Chun and Dr. Raj Narayanareddy provided the critical feedback I needed to refine my arguments and the motivation to see this product through to completion. I would like to thank Dr. Michelle Buckley for acting as internal reviewer and Dr. Belinda Dodson for her contributions as external reviewer. I have been truly lucky to work with Dr. Mark Hunter. As a supervisor, he has provided both encouragement and constructive critique. His check-ins during fieldwork allowed me to take a step back and map out the direction of the research when it seemed to be going nowhere. His guidance and feedback have helped shape this project from scattered thoughts into a finished product. I owe him a debt of thanks for believing in the value of this research and my ability to conduct it. I would not have been able to complete this project without the support, encouragement, and love of my wife, Adrie Naylor. She was a constant reminder that there is life and meaning beyond the written page. I thank her for her patience and kindness through the ups and downs of this project. Finally, I dedicate this dissertation to my parents, Colleen and Stuart Webb. From an early age, they instilled in me a love of learning, reading, and a relentless curiosity for the world. Their love and support have been constant guides. I would like to acknowledge the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship for making this research possible. vi Table of Contents: Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………………iv List of Figures, Maps & Tables…………………………………………………………....….…vii List of Plates…………………………………………………………………………...………..viii Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….………..1 Chapter 1, The Long History of Education, Reproduction and Resistance in South Africa………………………………………….………53 Chapter 2, ‘This country beyond the township’: Understanding Aspiration Among Working Class Youth in Higher Education ……………………………….89 Chapter 3, Asinamali: #FeesMustFall, Debt and the Right to Education………………………………………………………………….….123 Chapter 4, The Tithes of Education: Youth, Family and Paying the ‘Black Tax’………………………………………………………………...…..149 Chapter 5, #FeesMustFall, Citizenship and the Contradictory Functions of Higher Education in South Africa……………………………..….179 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………...220 Reference List…………………………...……………………………………………………...240 vii List of Figures, Maps and Tables Figure 1: Enrolments per year at three higher education institutions from 20 Khayelitsha High Schools, 2009-2017………………………………………….……100 Figure 2: Research Participant Survey Responses to Question Regarding Value of Higher Education………………………………………….….156 Map 1: Location of Khayelitsha…………………………………………………………….…28 Map 2: Map delineating Coloured Labour Preference Area, or the ‘Eiselen Line’………………………………………………………………….….29 Map 3: Location and enrolment size of top ten feeder schools to 3 higher education institutions in Cape Town, 2009-2017……………………………….....38
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